My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Condition: crisp, well-inked and well-printed impression showing
some wear to the plate in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes,
folds, abrasions, stains or foxing). The sheet is trimmed to the image
borderline and laid onto a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi
paper.

I am selling this famous etching of single figure full of life and
spirit from Ostade’s middle period for AU$236 in total (currently US$184.20/EUR149.50/GBP129.20
at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere
in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this small but visually
engaging etching from one of the truly great masters of the 17th
century, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you
a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Interestingly, the apron and vest that this rather kindly looking
man wears suggests that he is unlikely to be any of the occupations that the
three formal titles for this print propose; viz., peasant, farmer or beggar. Indeed,
as Leonard J Slatkes et al. (1994) in “Adriaen van Ostade: Etchings of Peasant
Life in Holland’s Golden Age” (exh. cat., Georgia Museum of Art) insightfully
suggests “perhaps he is a village shopkeeper or even an artisan” (p. 120).
After all, there are a number of other prints by Ostade featuring men in aprons
attesting to Slatkes’ proposals for the man’s occupation.

Regarding Ostade’s choice to portray a single figure without a
surrounding context, Slatkes et al. (1994) makes the point that “it seems likely
that Rembrandt’s various single-figure etchings of country folk, beggars, and
other plebeian types may have inspired Ostade to produce single-figure print
such as this one” (ibid).